President Trump's attacks on journalists are helping to fuel a growing climate of animosity toward the media around the world, according to a survey published Wednesday by a group that defends freedom of information and a free press.

The United States fell two places to 45th out of 180 countries on the 2018 World Press Freedom Index, compiled by Reporters Without Borders, as more and more, according to the Paris-based watchdog, "democratically-elected leaders no longer see the media as part of democracy’s essential underpinning, but as an adversary to which they openly display their aversion ... A media-bashing enthusiast, Trump has referred to reporters as 'enemies of the people,' the term once used by Joseph Stalin."

Countries in the former Soviet Union and Turkey are at the forefront of the decline. Almost two-thirds of countries in that region are ranked below 150th on the index.

But Reporters Without Borders found hostility "toward the media from political leaders is no longer limited to authoritarian countries such as Turkey (down two at 157th) and Egypt (161st), where 'media-phobia' is now so pronounced that journalists are routinely accused of terrorism and all those who don’t offer loyalty are arbitrarily imprisoned."

In Europe, the region where overall press freedom is the most respected, verbal and physical violence against the media is one the rise.

Among the incidents recorded in 2018:

In the Czech Republic (down 11 at 34th), President Milos Zeman turned up at a press conference with a fake Kalashnikov inscribed with the words "for journalists."

In Slovakia, (down ten at 27th), former Prime Minister Robert Fico called journalists "filthy anti-Slovak prostitutes" and "idiotic hyenas."

A Slovak reporter, Jan Kuciak, was shot dead in his home in February, just four months after another European journalist, Daphne Caruana Galizia, was killed by a targeted car-bombing in Malta (down 18 at 65th).

Christophe Deloire, Reporters Without Borders' secretary-general, noted in a statement that "hatred toward journalists is a major threat to democracies" and that "leaders who fuel loathing for reporters bear heavy responsibility because they undermine the concept of public debate based on facts instead of propaganda. To dispute the legitimacy of journalism today is to play with extremely dangerous political fire."

Trump regularly brands media outlets and reporters he does not like as "fake news."

The New York Times and a third rate reporter named Maggie Haberman, known as a Crooked H flunkie who I don’t speak to and have nothing to do with, are going out of their way to destroy Michael Cohen and his relationship with me in the hope that he will “flip.” They use....

For the second year running, Norway and North Korea placed first and last, respectively, in the index. It is calculated by assessing nations' levels of pluralism, media independence, self-censorship, legal frameworks, transparency, and the quality of the infrastructure that supports the production of news and information.

The index, which has been published every year since 2002, does not evaluate government policy in determining the rankings. The full index is viewable here.